(1889)
109 Commercial Street.
A substantial pier — though not very long, at 400 feet — was on or near this site as early as the 1830s, when it may have been known as Lancy’s Wharf. The connection between the well-known Lancy family and the teamster Newell Cyrenus Brooks (1833-1907) is quite direct, in the person of his wife, Abigail Cook “Abby” (Lancy) Brooks (1838-1888). The enterprise of N. C. Brooks seems to have begun largely as a lumber business. Indeed, in his capsule history of the wharves of Provincetown, Irving S. Rogers described “lumber schooners unloading heavy timber from the Maine woods and the more northern parts of Nova Scotia” at this wharf. Through the mid-1870s, “Long and Short Lumber” was Brooks’s chief claim in Advocate advertisements. By the time of the 1912 Sanborn insurance map, the wharf was gone.
For a view of the N. C. Brooks & Son Livery Stable, please see 109 Commercial Street.
For a view of the N. C. Brooks wagon house (now Blue Shutters), please see 109 Commercial Street.
¶ Last updated on 15 September 2018. ¶ Image from the Atlas of Barnstable County (1880), courtesy of Ken Janson and Robert Vetrick.
Though N. C. Brooks began as a lumber company, it became an important livery stable. It’s shown in 1889 on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, courtesy of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. Digital ID No. g3764pm.g038261889.
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Grave sites in Provincetown
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Brooks, Abby. Find a Grave Memorial 120975546.
Brooks, N. C. Find a Grave Memorial 120975487.